Use of non-volatile storage devices has been rapidly increasing over the years because they are portable and they have small physical size and large storage capacity. Storage devices come in a variety of designs. Some storage devices are regarded as “embedded”, meaning that they cannot, and are not intended to be removed by a user from a host device with which they operate. Other storage devices are removable, which means that the user can move them from one host device (e.g., from a digital camera) to another, or replace one storage device with another.
The digital content stored in a storage device can originate from a host of the storage device. For example, a digital camera, an exemplary host, captures images and translates them into corresponding digital data. The digital camera then stores the digital data in a storage device with which it operates. Digital content that is stored in a storage device may also originate from a remote source: it can be sent to a host of the storage device, for example, over a data network (e.g., the Internet) or a communication network (e.g., a cellular phone network), and then be downloaded by the host to the storage device. The remote source may be, for example, a service provider or a content provider. Service providers and content providers are collectively referred to hereinafter as “publishers”.
As storage devices within mobile handsets grow in size and capabilities, new scenarios for content acquisition and consumption on the go become available. Typically, handsets can be used to consume movies and music downloaded from operator-controlled servers, market applications such as Apple's iTunes service, and side-loaded from sources such as SanDisk's slotMedia cards. However, in all of these applications, the user must proactively seek the content he wishes to consume, indicate and authorize the acquisition of the content, acquire the content, and then consume it. This reduces the ability of content owners to offer content for instant consumption, and the ability of the user to immediately see what he acquires without waiting for it to download.
A number of product initiatives have been created around preloading content to the user, but they all suffer from one common drawback: the user must sacrifice his own storage capacity in order to store content, but cannot access this content until after purchasing it. Users who have to purchase this capacity do not generally want to see a significant portion of it allocated to content that they cannot actually use.
Users of storage devices can willingly download media content and advertisements by requesting the media content or the advertisements from publishers. However, sometimes, publishers, trying to increase their income, send content to users without asking their permission, and sometimes even without the users being aware that such content was downloaded to their storage devices. Content that a publisher sends to users without getting their consent are referred to herein as “unsolicited content”. Oftentimes, unsolicited content is intended to be consumed by users after paying, or after committing to pay, the publisher a fee.
By downloading unsolicited content to users' storage devices publishers hope that users will eventually consume the unsolicited content for a fee, thus increasing their income. The practice of publishers storing unsolicited contents on storage devices without asking users' consent, hoping that the users will consume these contents for a fee, is a concept known in the media publishing field as “predictive consignment”. However, unsolicited content may remain stored in a storage device without the user of the storage device knowing of its existence or wanting to consume it. Storing unsolicited content in a storage device reduces the available (i.e., free) user storage space on the storage device, which is undesirable from the user's point of view. A user may find that there is less space in the storage device for the user's own content (e.g., a music file) because someone else (i.e., some publisher) has taken over part of the storage space on the storage device, or that the user may have to reclaim the storage space so taken by deleting the unsolicited content.
One partial solution to the problem of taking over parts of the user's storage space involves blocking publishers' access to the storage device, such as by blocking the publisher's website. This solution may be acceptable for the users but it is problematic from the publishers' point of view because publishers will make fewer sales and lose a potential income source. Another partial solution to this problem involves publishing content to hosts (i.e., storing content files in storage devices of these hosts) and removing the content when it becomes irrelevant. In other words, the publisher that originated the content removes the stored unsolicited content from the storage device when the content becomes irrelevant. An unsolicited content is regarded as irrelevant if the time for its consumption has lapsed, or when there are indications that the user is not likely to consume it.
Thus, there develops a need for a new technology that intelligently manages handset storage, such that a user is free to use their storage without penalty, while still enabling content owners to push content to handsets. Stated another way, there is therefore a need to address the problem with unsolicited files. Specifically, while publishers should be allowed to pursue downloads to storage devices of unsolicited content in the course of conducting their business, these downloads should not have a materially deterring effect on the user experience.